VANCOUVER—Game 1 of Canucks-Sharks, a 3-1 San Jose win, took some heat for seeming boring and defensive, but it was interesting from a tactical perspective. Sharks coach Todd McLellan worked his bench well to match up his shutdown pair of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun against Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

The Sedin twins, some of the top puck-possession players in the league the last few seasons, were outshot 4-5 while on the ice Wednesday night. This is despite many opportunities starting at the offensive end of the ice. One of the keys coming into the series was whether or not the Canucks, when they held the last change, would be able to exploit the Sharks' third pairing of Brad Stuart and Scott Hannan.

"As 'D' men, you can get the change any time the puck goes up the ice," McLellan said after the game. "(Vlasic and Braun) were prepared, they were sharp on the bench."

With the last change, the easiest way for a home coach to get a favorable matchup is to send his players out for a faceoff. On four occasions McLellan was forced to use Stuart and Hannan at San Jose's end of the ice. Three of those times, Vigneault countered with Henrik Sedin.

"There are certain matchups that we were looking for, but they're a good team and they sure changed on the fly," said Vigneault, who praised Hannan and Stuart for their experience and physicality and didn't tip his hand over which pairings he was trying to exploit.

McLellan did a fine job at working his bench to coincide Braun and Vlasic's deployments at the offensive end of the ice with those of Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture and Raffi Torres. There aren't a lot of weaknesses in the Sharks' lineup, but Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton are the team's top two-way players and they were playing on the first and second lines.

McLellan was willing to trade off matching Thornton against the twins for Vlasic, and Vigneault is going to have to make an adjustment for Game 2, possibly forcing Henrik into a one-on-one with Thornton.

The addition of Derek Roy at the trade deadline and return of Ryan Kesler had supposedly given the Canucks three lines that can play in any situation, but their struggles to score playoff goals continued in Game 1—they have just 17 in their last 13 postseason games, dating back the 2011 Stanley Cup finals against the Bruins. Not coincidentally, they've won just four of those games. A performance like Wednesday's from the Sedins isn't likely to repeat itself, but the twins, along with usual wingers Alex Burrows and Zack Kassian, combined for just four shots in Game 1. Canucks Army counted just eight scoring chances by the Canucks and only five at even strength. The twins were on the ice for one of those.

So there will be lots to look for in the second game of the series, even if there weren't many goals and chances either way on Wednesday.

To the Canucks' credit, they are focusing their physical efforts on Vlasic. He was hit four times in the game, and twice by Vancouver's biggest boys in Dale Weise and Kassian. Laboring between whistles, Vlasic took a hard assignment and toughed it out, playing a team-high 23:51 and keeping the Sedins off the scoreboard.